Harald Range (16 February 1948 – 2 May 2018) was a German

jurist A jurist is a person with expert knowledge of law; someone who analyses and comments on law. This person is usually a specialist legal scholar, mostly (but not always) with a formal qualification in law and often a legal practitioner. In the Uni ...

and was

Attorney General of Germany The Public Prosecutor General at the Federal Court of Justice (german: Generalbundesanwalt or ''Generalbundesanwältin beim Bundesgerichtshof'' (GBA), lit.: "General Federal Attorney at the Federal Court of Justice") is the federal prosecutor of G ...

Early life and career

After completing his studies at the

University of Göttingen The University of Göttingen, officially the Georg August University of Göttingen, (german: Georg-August-Universität Göttingen, known informally as Georgia Augusta) is a public research university in the city of Göttingen, Germany. Founded ...

Range began his career with the judiciary of

Lower Saxony Lower Saxony (german: Niedersachsen ; nds, Neddersassen; stq, Läichsaksen) is a German state (') in northwestern Germany. It is the second-largest state by land area, with , and fourth-largest in population (8 million in 2021) among the 16 ...

, serving as a judge from 1975–78, as a prosecutor from 1978–86 and as a senior prosecutor at the Higher Regional Court in

Celle Celle () is a town and capital of the district of Celle, in Lower Saxony, Germany. The town is situated on the banks of the river Aller, a tributary of the Weser, and has a population of about 71,000. Celle is the southern gateway to the Lü ...

from 1986–89. From 1989–2001 Range held various roles within the , including as the leader of the Criminal Law, Law of Criminal Proceedings, and Clemency Unit. From 2001 until 2011 Range served as the State Attorney General in Celle.

Attorney General of Germany

Range served as Attorney General of Germany from November 2011 until 2015. Following the 2011 attack on the British Embassy in Iran, Range launched investigative proceedings against possible plans for Iranian attacks on American military installations in Germany in the event of an attack against Iran. After coming under pressure from Parliament and the news media in June 2014, Range began a formal investigation of what he called “unknown” members of American intelligence agencies on suspicion that they had eavesdropped on one of

Chancellor Chancellor ( la, cancellarius) is a title of various official positions in the governments of many nations. The original chancellors were the of Roman courts of justice—ushers, who sat at the or lattice work screens of a basilica or law cou ...

Angela Merkel Angela Dorothea Merkel (; ; born 17 July 1954) is a German former politician and scientist who served as Chancellor of Germany from 2005 to 2021. A member of the Christian Democratic Union (CDU), she previously served as Leader of the Oppo ...

’s cellphones. By June 2015, he dropped the investigation because of a lack of concrete evidence. Based on the code of crimes against international law, Range investigated members of the Syrian government under

President President most commonly refers to: *President (corporate title) *President (education), a leader of a college or university *President (government title) President may also refer to: Automobiles * Nissan President, a 1966–2010 Japanese ful ...

Bashar al-Assad Bashar Hafez al-Assad, ', Levantine pronunciation: ; (, born 11 September 1965) is a Syrian politician who is the 19th president of Syria, since 17 July 2000. In addition, he is the commander-in-chief of the Syrian Armed Forces and the ...

on suspicion of committing crimes against humanity in 2015. In the aftermath of the treason investigation of netzpolitik.org, Federal Minister of Justice

Heiko Maas Heiko Josef Maas (; born 19 September 1966) is a German lawyer and politician of the Social Democratic Party (SPD) who served as the Federal Minister of Foreign Affairs (2018–2021) and as the Federal Minister of Justice and Consumer Protectio ...

forced Range into retirement for breach of public trust on 4 August 2015.

Death

On the night of 2 May 2018, he collapsed in a café in

Karlsruhe Karlsruhe ( , , ; South Franconian: ''Kallsruh'') is the third-largest city of the German state (''Land'') of Baden-Württemberg after its capital of Stuttgart and Mannheim, and the 22nd-largest city in the nation, with 308,436 inhabitants. ...

and subsequently died. According to

Deutsche Welle Deutsche Welle (; "German Wave" in English), abbreviated to DW, is a German public, state-owned international broadcaster funded by the German federal tax budget. The service is available in 32 languages. DW's satellite television service con ...

, "reports suggest" that his death was caused by a heart attack.

Other activities

* Lions Foundation Germany, Member of the Board of TrusteesMembers of the Board of Trustees
Lions Foundation Germany. *

Lions Clubs International The International Association of Lions Clubs, more commonly known as Lions Clubs International, is an international non-political service organization established originally in 1916 in Chicago, Illinois, by Melvin Jones. It is now headquartere ...

, Member

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Range, Harald 1948 births 2018 deaths People from Göttingen Free Democratic Party (Germany) politicians Public Prosecutors General of Germany Jurists from Lower Saxony University of Göttingen alumni